Cold Open: A Message from Mayor Bloomberg

Too soon to makes jokes about Hurricane Sandy? Not on SNL. This week’s opening sketch set the stage for a largely Sandy-centric episode (considering the fact that the election is just days away.) The cold open poked fun at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his spirited sign-language interpreter Lydia Callis, who’s become something of a celebrity throughout Bloomberg’s series of televised Sandy addresses. Also receiving the parody treatment was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who’s been a very outspoken — and very blunt — presence in the days following Hurricane Sandy’s devastating landfall. The SNL writers even granted Christie a sign-language interpreter of his own: a fictional, gum-chewing guidette named Roxy.

While some episode’s cold openings seem to drag on, this week’s was short and sweet — though surprisingly lacking in election-themed humor. The best moment came at the end, when Bloomberg, played by Fred Armisen, busted out his signature, heavily accented Spanish. (Which happens to be the inspiration behind a frequently-updated Twitter parody that was launched last year during Hurricane Irene.) He urged New York’s Latino community to be patient with the city’s white people, who are moody and irritable without their Internet and cable. In particular, he said, they’re pretty distraught about missing Homeland. “Los blancos amor Homeland.“